Reclining chair



Jan. 7, 1936. A s 'o 2,027,125

BECL-INING CHAIR Filed May 8, 1933 50 a vention, the advantages oifered by the first men- Patented Jan. 7, 1936 PATENT OFFICE RECLINING CHAIR Albert Stoll, Koblenz, Switzerland Application May 8, 1933, Serial No. 669,967

In Germany May 13, 1932 4 Claims. 11. 155-77) This invention relates to reclining chairs.

Chairs of this kind are known to provide a comfortable position of rest for the occupant, when the seat is rearwardly tilted, whereas in stretching the legs out under the desk the forwardly tilted seat adapts itself to the inclination' of the legs, so that the uncomfortable pressure otherwise exerted on the limbs by the front edge of the seat is eliminated.

In the known rotatable chairs including a tiltable seat, as used for oflice chairs, the seat is hingedly mounted on a portion of a support for the same, and a special spring, usually consisting in a spiral spring, is provided which is compressed, when the seat is'tilted, The necessity of of including this spring complicates the construction of the chair.

There are also chairs known which comprise a tiltable seat which is rigidly connected to a support for the same made of springy material.

This construction permits'of tilting the seat only to a moderate extent, the range of the tilting movement being, aside from the elasticity of the material of'the support, also dependent on the weight of the body of the occupant of the chair. Moreover, with this kind of chairs .the medium height of the seat changes with the weight imposed thereon in the inverse sense as required in that with the weight of the body and the tallness of stature of the occupant increasing the height of the seat is less than with smaller and lighter persons occupying the chair.

In the chair according to the present invention the tilting movemnt of the seat is provided for by the upper part of the chair being mounted, by means of a movable joint on a support for the seat which support includes two resilient, upturned, open-ended, stirrup-like side frames, the upper ends of the end members of each side frame approaching one another adjacent the longitudinal centerline of the, seat extending between the sides thereof and the frames being made of a springy material at least in parts. The movable joint is of a construction to permit a considerable range of tilting' movement for a the seat Without substantial effort similarly as provided for the known rotatable chairs, except that thespecial spring applied to these chairs is dispensed with. Thus, by means of the intioned known chair construction providing a considerable range of tilting movement without substantial efiort is paired with the advantages of another known construction which consists in the support for the seat being adapted to constitute at the same time the pedestal or the back rest of the chair or both.

In the drawing a constructional form of the invention is illustrated by way of example only, 5 in which Fig. 1 shows a side elevation oi. the chair, with the seat in the middle position,

Fig. 2 shows a front elevation of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1 indicating two different tilting positions of the seat, and Fig. 4 illustrates a convenient construction of the movable joint underneath the seat.

In the constructional form of the invention,

as shown in the drawing, the means tiltably supporting the seat or the pedestal of the chair is made of a continuous elastic steel tube. Thetube is bent to form a pair of side frames in the form of resilient, upturned, open-ended,

stirrup-like frame structures upon which rests 201 the chair seat. The two arms or upright memhers I) of each side frame structure extend upwardly in convergent relationship so as to approach one another with their upper ends adjacent the longitudinal centerline of the seat. The corresponding upper ends of the two frame structures are interconnected by two parallel cross rods 2' extending underneath the seat and connected therewith by hinge sockets 0, thus serving as two pivots of a movable joint for the 'seat a to rock about. The lower ends of the arms or upright members of the supporting frames are connected by base bars g-h which lie fiat on the surface upon which the chair rests. The back rest it is fixed to the seat, thus sharing in the rocking movements of the same.

If, by changing his position the occupant shifts the point oi application of the weight of his body to the seat a from the irontside to the backside of the hinge joint c, c or vice 0 versa, the seat tilts against the spring action of the resilient side frames 1), g, h, b. The various tilting positions of the seat a obtain in adaptation to the fiexion of said resilient side frames, 1. e. the movements of the outer ends the seat tilts backwardly, as shown in chain dotted lines in Fig. 3, so that the angle of inclination g of the forward arm b towards the base 9, h is increased and the angle of inclination it of the rearward arm b is decreased.

By varying the distance between the cross 'bars 2 underneath the seat, the resistance opposed to the tilting movement of the seat by the structures is correspondingly changed. In Fig. 4 a constructional example of the hinge joint 0, c is shown which permits of varying the distance between the two members i. The double staple c, c of the hinge joint embraces one of the members 2 closely so as to merely provide for rotational displacement of this member, whereas the other member 1 is enclosed by the staple with a certain play that admits 'of varying the distance apart of this cross member from the first cross member. The adjustment of the distance between the two cross members is effected by means of two hooks e for gripping behind the members and adapted to be forced against each other by means of a screw f. In this manner the cross member 1' can be imparted any convenient amount of initial spring within the limits as provided by the widened socket c that tends to move the members asunder. Thus, the cross members i, i,

' extending between the frame structures, bear at all times firmly outwardly against the cir-' cular socket c and the hook e adjacent to the widened socket 0 respectively.

With this constructiomthe range of the tilting movement of the seat'is practically independent of the weight of the body of the occupant, as it is possible to arrange the two hinge sockets c, 0 so closely beside each other that the seat tilts in the respective direction to any desired extent, for example until bearing against a stop memberlc, irrespective of the load applied to the seat. As the elfective lever arm of the load changes during the tilting movement of the seat, the increasing resistance of the elastic side frame structures is compensated for by this lever arm increasing in length, the resistance thus being substantially constant during the entire tilting movement.

A further advantage of the constructional form of the invention as per the Figs. 1 and 2 consists in the fact that during tilting rearwardly the seat shifts to the front and during tilting forwardly the seat shifts backwardly, so that even with the width of the supporting base of the chair being a minimum the danger of the chair toppling over is but small.

Instead of making the side frame structures entirely of steel, only portions thereof may con sist of this material. The construction of the chair may be modified in various ways, for example in such a manner that arm rests are provided byextensions of the open-ended frame structures.

What I claim is: 7

1. A reclining chair comprising a seat member and means tiltably supporting said seat member, said means comprising resilient, upturned, open-ended, stirrup-like side frames at each side of said seat member, parallel cross rods extending across said seat member adjacent the longitudinal centerline thereof and connecting the corresponding ends of said open-ended side frames on opposite sides of said seat member, and hinge sockets carried by said seat member and pivotally receiving said cross rods therein, whereby the tilting positions of said seat member are obtained in adaptation to the fiexion of said resilient side frames according to the load applied to said seat member shifting relative to said cross-rods.

2. A reclining chair comprising a seat member and means tiltably supporting said seat member, said means comprising, upturned, open-ended, stirrup-like side frames made at least in part of springy material at each side of said seat member, parallel cross rods extending across said seat member adjacent the longitudinal centerline thereof and connecting the corresponding ends of said open-ended side frames on opposite sides of said seat member, and hinge sockets carried by said seat member and pivotally receiving said cross rods therein, whereby the tilting positions of said seat member are obtained in adaptation to the flexion of said resilient side frames according to the load applied to said seat member shifting relative to said cross roads.

3. A reclining chair comprising a seat member and means tiltably supporting said seat member, said means comprising resilient, upturned, open-ended, stirrup-like side frames each including two end members approaching one another with their outer ends adjacent the longitudinal centerline of said seat member, parallel cross rods extending across said seat member and connecting the corresponding outer ends of said end members on opposite sides of said seat member, and hinge sockets carried by said seat member and pivotally receiving said cross rods therein, whereby the tilting positions of said seat member are obtained in adaptation to the fiexion of said resilient side frames according to the load applied to said seat member shifting relative to said cross rods.

4. A reclining chair comprising a seat member and means tiltably supporting said seat memher, said means comprising resilient, upturned,

herent thereto an; initial spring tending to force said outer ends of said end members asunder on opposite sides of said seat member, two hinge sockets carried by said seat member on each side thereof and pivotally receiving said cross bars therein, one of said sockets on either side of said seat member being widened in the direction towards the other socket, and adjustable clamping means for varying the spacing between said cross rods as limited by said widened hinge sockets, for regulating said initial spring inherent to said end members, whereby the tilting positions of said seat member are obtained in adaptation to the fiexion of said resilient side frames according to the load applied to said seat member shifting relative to said 

